The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1887-06-23
ANNUAL ADDRESS
OF THE PR ESIDENT TO TIE MEN,
BEIsS OF THE ASSEMBLY,.
Prof. e. A. Alderman, President, Dis
cusseS Teaching as Il PrOfessioE--TEc
Old and the New PedaSOgUc.

Olu anu the New IcUdSGSUc.
The following is the full text of Mr.. al
derman's excellent and eloquent address ::
TEACHERS OF NORTH CAROLINA:-
We are met together for the fourth time
in General Assembly to consult together
how we may promote the cause Of popular
education in our State, and how we may
best elevate and make more effective the
teachers office. | welcome you all from
the cares and harassings of the school
room to this glorious wealth and freedom
OF sky and air, and to this grateful vision
of glancing sunshine and bright waters.
Here in this charming spot by the sea en-
bodying in its name the vain dream of an
early Carolinian who, loved his State and
did it service, we are come for recreation
and kindliness and counsel. Though we
are out on no junketing tour, and though
our object is a stern and serious one, there
exists no reason why we should not run
and leap and swim and fish and set our
blood aboundng. We need blood and
muscle and active vital forces, and as well
the inclination to attunc our characters to
the music of humanity around us. Charles
Lamb, the genial English humorist, has
said wisely that one never feels quite at
his ease with schoolmaSter, for the rea-
son that he comes like Gulliver from
among his little people and cannot fit the
statue of his understanding to yours. He
is so used to teaching that he wants to be
teaching you, and at this the adult mind
revots. We are not here to handy ped
antries, or to indulge in wordy platitudes
of praise for ourselves and our calling
We are here to make ourselves stronger in
our great offices, to combat the heresy
that teaching is blind routine, to take to
heart that, for its duties, we need all the
| Of hooks ~ hn 10
wisdom of the heart: and, like st. Paul at
| the Appii Forum, to thank God and take
! courage.
In the past five years there has been an
awakening in all matters educational in
| North Carolina. We are no longer Omega
| in the alphabet of illiteracy, and this As
| sembly is the exponent and expression of
this Renaissance. We bear on our rolls
names representing every educational in
terest, public and private, in this State.
| This is the first successful and organ
| lied effort in our educational history to
| bind teachers together thai they may learn
the strength and beauty of union, TO cs-
| tablish their professional character, to
mass their influence as a weapon for teach
| ing the neglected truth that there is both
| science and art in cducatiOn-a truism
| which is slowly gaining Il place III the
| popular mind
We live in an age OF cooperation and
| concentration, and in a complex and high
| " civilization such as ours, every great
cause that hopes 10 win must unity and
consolidate. This is true alike of the low
est order of artisans and Of the highest
vocation of culture, and especially ought
| it to be true of the teacher His work is
one which especially requires freshness
and vigor of mind. The doctor, the law
yer, the clergyman, the scientists, the
sayants meet III annual congress to garner
! the fruits of progress i'll their noble sci
ences, to intensity the love of their pro
fession and to renew their zeal in intel
| lectual contact and combat. The teacher.
though outnumbering the other profeS-
sions five to one, has done none of this in
the past. His progress, ii he has made
/ any, has been the result of a hard and
steady pull in the isolation and seclusion
of the school-room. He has not known
the Joy and helpfulneSS of contact with
those similarly occupied Unaided by the
strength of organization, lacking the pres
tige. of undoubted professional associa
tions, fighting prejudice and conservatism
stolid and colossal, hearing along the ioylcsS
way no whisper of honest applause anC
expected to teach the unteachable, to gov
ern the .ngovernable, and to reform the
incorrigiple, it is no small marvel that he
sometimes failed of the mark of his high
calling. And the peril was within as wei
as without. The conditions of his life
and labor induced pedantry, fetichism
narrow -mindedness and indOlence.
All honor to the brave old schoolmaster>
of the past who fought this fight and lef
their mark on their generation. Like SaU
among his brethren they stand out taller
and fairer and nobler than the rest; bu
they lacked unity and organized influence
Let us hope that we are entering on a new
era. The flow of time, the spirit of pro
gress and popular needs are bringing forth
new ideas and stamping them sterling il
the face of protesting conservatism. New
aspirations, new thoughts and new ideal
rule the teachers mind, and new motions
as to his Office, his work and his equip
ment have captured the popular intelli
gence.
This much is said in no disparagemen
to the wisdom of the past or TO the conse
Grafton and effectiveness OF them of ole
time. But because it is true, and he tha
runs may read. Erasmus in the thrill 0
the new learning begged his bread anC
bought Greek grammars. Teachers ar
here to-day who have traversed the Stat
that they might become filter instrument
for fashioning character and conductln:
mental operations.
Ihc lmpelllnS spirit IS lnc same III DOll
cases What a blessed thing is a new an(
just idea working in human hearts. |
may take generations to establish it. lg
norance, insolent and vulgar, may beat
to the earth Self satisfaction may ignor
and shun it, but neither principalities no
powers, nor any other creature can shu
its final triumph. Legislatures may b
} deaf and laws hurtfully constructed, bu
the growth of a just idea is like the opera
ton of natural law-inevitable.
The schoolmaster of to-day differs wide
ly from his professional ancestor. Tha
parsonage was the prey of the humoris
and the butt of the wit. In the public re
l gard he was often held to be a respectabl
joke, an amiable platitude, an animate
idiosyncracy, a pious factotum, or, pei
, chance, an angry son of thunder, or a
inflated bombast without weight or fore
or color but abounding in previous cond
ton of servitude.
? The schoolmaster has run the gauntlt
8 of literature from Horace with Orbiliu
and ''plagosus" coupled on his lips, O
,, past Dr. Keate with his right arm to tn
modern newspaper paragrapher with h
broad joke at all things celestial and te
! ! restial. Goldsmith, Johnson, Lamb, Ir'
1 ing and Dickens each tried their hand an
hosts of lesser lights have made him the
stock in trade, and verify he was an invi
ing subject. He dug graves, sang in tt
49, Il 16O hoo 6.ld npf>I,y